Moving Toward a Human Rights Approach to Mental Health

Abstract

The University of Florida Counseling and Wellness Center (UFCWC) has implemented peer support and professional training programs to address human rights identified within advocacy groups comprised of individuals who have, themselves, been diagnosed with mental illness. These programs are moving the UFCWC toward fulfilling a 2017 United Nations report emphasizing rights-based professional training, provision of genuine informed consent, and availability of non-compromised peer support alternatives. Collaborating with student peers, four UFCWC faculty members have facilitated forms of peer support developed within service-user movements, while openly identifying experiences of reclaiming their own lives from the impacts of adversity, intense mental distress, and traumatizing responses of others to their distress. In the wake of the current pervasive health, economic, and social justice crises, professionals have a collective opportunity to recognize the human experience and rights of those suffering mental distress. These UFCWC programs offer one example of steps taken toward that goal.

“My Voice Was Discounted the Whole Way Through”: A Gendered Analysis of Women’s Experiences of Involuntary Mental Health Treatment

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Psykisk helsearbeid under ulike kulturelle betingelser: refleksjoner rundt empatiens funksjon i arbeidet med å beskytte menneskerettighetene. Belyst med et eksempel fra Indonesia

“…Psykisk helsefeltet bør bli menneskerettighetsbaserte (Probert, 2021). Å vedta en rettighetsbasert tilnaerming involverer å tilpasse lovene til CRPD (Sugiura et al, 2020).…”

Truth, freedom, love, hope, and power: An existential rights paradigm for anti-oppressive psychological praxis.

“…As the field of psychology holds itself accountable for anti-oppressive praxis, contemporary discourse implores a “rights-based approach” to mental health (Cosgrove & Shaughnessy, 2020; Mann et al, 2016; Patel, 2019; Probert, 2021; Puras & Gooding, 2019; Stastsy, 2020). A rights-based approach to mental health is supported by the United Nation’s inclusion of the “right to health” as an inalienable human right, such that “the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition” (United Nations, 2008a, 2008b).…”